i found a local shop that sells beautiful roving and got so excited i picked up 3oz in grey-brown, light brown and dark brown. ripped them into my desired length, palmrolled palmrolled palmrolled... at this point id say they were a bit thicker than a sharpie. i crumpled them, threw them in a pillow case and into the washer to felt... BUT they ended up being about pencil thin (thinner in some parts ). would it be possible to maybe wrap them in more roving and re-felt them to make them thicker? or would they probably just unravel?

Yeah, Andrea has a point. Roving felts together, locking all the fibres in closely so they do shrink & become thinner, you could braid them together & do another (coldish) wash, braided roving can look nice.

*~*~*~*~*Saaaaaaspie-doo-be-doo-bedooooo is awwwwweeesoooooome*~*~*~*~*-ScarletLady

i think the wash may have been a bit too warm... ill try again and make them thicker still and maybe try felting by hand instead. i have really thin hair as it is and usually only get about 30 sections , keeping my fringe and sideburns out. so i think if i make thicker DEs, maybe it'll look full like i want it

DreadstarMonstar wrote:Yeah, Andrea has a point. Roving felts together, locking all the fibres in closely so they do shrink & become thinner, you could braid them together & do another (coldish) wash, braided roving can look nice.

i think i might try this. as well as wrapping them with more and refelting.

How about just starting again? It is possible you will never be happy with the originals. I sold n the ones that were too thin, they actually looked really good in falls.

I generally put them through a 30 wash twice, drying completely inbetween.

It is trial and error, took me a few sets to get the right size and shape I wanted, and to get the right amount of pre felting. I was always a hand felt in hot water kind of gal until I tried this method, I far pref it now as I love the wiggly look.

im picking up a whole pound of black roving today i believe. so ill have plenty to play around with and figure out what i want them to look like. ill try all of your advice tho! ill try to post pics when i finish the set.

also, the lady im getting the roving from has an etsy i believe so ill get it from her to post here if anyone wants.